The present invention in general relates to a technology of voting a voting object (such as book review, commodity, music, or various resources) and performing evaluation in accordance with a voting result through Internet. More particularly this invention relates to a technology for obtaining objective and high-reliability evaluation.
A method of voting for a voting object by many voters and performing evaluation in accordance with voting results has been used so far in various fields. In the case of a conventional vote, however, a problem occurs in which illegal voting is performed in order to arbitrarily manipulate a voting result by a person assuming a legal voter and thereby, it is difficult to secure the reliability of a voting result. Particularly, in the case of the voting using Internet that has been rapidly spread, the probability is very high, in which the above illegal voting is performed. Therefore, means and method for effectively solving the above problem have been eagerly requested.
To evaluate a commodity or the like, a voting system of making many voters select one of evaluation levels at a plurality of stages (very good, good, fair, bad, very bad) has been widely used so far. For example, a voter (in this case, purchaser of a commodity) enters a voting result in a voting postcard attached to the commodity and then, posts it for the commodity provider. Then, the commodity provider performs evaluation and marketing analysis of the commodity by totalizing voting results entered in voting postcards.
Moreover, a voting-system for performing voting through Internet has been recently used in order to improve the totalizing efficiency of voting results. In the case of the voting system of this type, a voting object is inserted in a home page of Internet and a voter accessing the home page is allowed to vote the object through Internet. This result is counted in real time.
As described above, however, in the case of a conventional voting system through Internet, it is possible for a person assuming a legal voter to arbitrarily illegally manipulate a voting result by abusing anonymity. Therefore, when the above illegal manipulation is performed, the reliability of the evaluation according to a voting result is extremely deteriorated and therefore, a problem occurs that it is impossible to perform objective and fair evaluation.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method and system capable of preventing illegal manipulation of a voting result and performing objective and fair evaluation. It is another object of this invention to provide a computer readable recording medium that stores a computer program which when executed realizes the method according to the present invention.
The system according to one aspect of the present invention comprises a voting unit for making a plurality of voters respectively vote the evaluation of information to be voted in accordance with a voting system; an average-evaluation calculating unit for calculating average evaluation in accordance with voting results by the voting unit; a voting-rank deciding unit for deciding a voter rank of each of the voters in accordance with a deviation between the average evaluation and the evaluation by the voter concerned; and an overall-evaluation determining unit for determining the overall evaluation of the information to be voted in accordance with a result of weighting a voting result by the voting unit correspondingly to a voter rank.
According to the above system, a voter rank is decided in accordance with a deviation between average evaluation with a voting system and evaluation by a voter and overall evaluation is determined in accordance with a result of weighting a voting result correspondingly to a voter rank. Therefore, it is possible to prevent illegal manipulation of a voting result and perform objective and fair evaluation.
The method according to another aspect of the present invention comprises a voting step of making a plurality of voters respectively vote the evaluation of information to be voted with a voting system, an average-evaluation calculating step of calculating average evaluation in accordance with voting results by the voting step; a voting-rank deciding step of deciding a voter rank of each of the voters in accordance with a deviation between the average evaluation and evaluation by the voter concerned; and an overall-evaluation determining step of determining the overall evaluation of the information to be voted in accordance with a result of weighting a voting result in the voting step correspondingly to a voter rank.
According to the above method, a voter rank is decided in accordance with a deviation between average evaluation with a voting system and evaluation by a voter and a result of weighting a voting result correspondingly to a voter rank. Therefore, it is possible to prevent illegal manipulation of a voting result and perform objective and fair evaluation.
Other objects and features of this invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.